Another Bag Of Bones

It's a brushfire spreading, feeding as it movesIt's a disappeared glacier; it's the airborne fluIt's your disbelieving eyes logging concrete milesIt's your yawning conscience and your lawyer's smileIt's an occupied country foaming at the mouthNo smoking gun, no mushroom cloudIt's a military mother with a boy in hellAnd it's a flag-draped casket down an oil wellIt's an Argentine school-girl gagged and boundIt's a torture camp; it's a long way downIt's the constant bracing shock of nowAnd it's the whole damn world turned inside out, alright

It's a march to extinction with your god in stepIt's his name in your mouth; it's his cross on your neckIt's a farm boy sprinting over desert dirtAnd he's panting the 'Our Father' in staccato spurtsNow that's his automatic rifle and it tells no liesIt's his truth in your stomach, it's no alibiBut the trouble lies on the other sideWith an equal truth prepping for his holy nightHe sees the crescent and the star blink in the virgin skyAnd hears the call of milk and honey from the afterlifeAnd as he eases to the checkpoint, he is calm and sureIt's collateral damage; it's the cost of warIt's another bag of bones for the Gods to sortIt's just another bag of bones for the Gods to sort

Well it's a species disappearing, all the birds fly southIn a January heatwave, in a pulsing crowdIt's an African Militia, kids with sub-machinesIt's a conflict diamond on your bride-to-beIt's the dispossessed lining up at every gateIt's the facts worth facing, faced way too lateIt's the mission of modernity, go get what's yoursTil there's nothing leftover to go get no moreAnd it's not what we're owed, but it's what we've earnedAnd it's closer than we realise, and it's time now to burnAnd oh it's time now to burnAnd oh it's time now to burnAnd oh it's time now to burn, to burn